Selfridges Fragrance Lab Distils Personality into Scent

I was drawn to Selfridges Fragrance Lab`s promise to match their new fragrances, produced exclusively by `Swiss noses` from Givaudan, to my personality.  So I ventured, with eagerness, into `all-white` space on the ground floor, which acts as an entrance, and a reception area of the Laboratory.

`Lab technicians` are young actors; they were chosen for their artistic flair, intuition, and ability to `read` others. I am wearing a wool and fox-fur jacket from Anne Klein and a crocodile-skin handbag from Africa.

 

I was asked to store my belongings, including my handbag, in a locker, and sit on a shiny stool in front of an iPad, to complete a multi-choice questionnaire. It included images, from which I needed to choose my favourites, statements and questions about my age and my lifestyle. Pictures contained – for example -three different styles of architecture: modern, rococo and gothic. I chose rococo.

 

I was then given headphones and asked to listen to instructions from a mobile, while I moved from one room to another. Each was furnished with curiosities, for example a chest of drawers, which contained different scents. Other rooms displayed shiny objects, glass jars full of grass, fragrant books, and a wind machine, which emitted a faint aroma of something I couldn`t name. Coffee pots were placed in tiny corridors, between rooms.

 

The last room is actually one of Selfridges window displays, and here I met my very own `lab technician` who encouraged me to sniff various pots, some full of petals, others containing copper wiring. All had distinctive scent. After analysing my questionnaire feedback, and my preferred scent from the last room, he then presented me with a bottle of fragrance he thought matched my character best.  He described my personality as `a bold provocateur` and `champion of the avant-garde`. He said I was `an early adopter of new brands and trends`   - absolutely right! My fragrance was made by a Malaysian perfumer, Shyamala Maisondieu. She previously created men’s fragrance for Lanvin . My `technician` told me she married and settled in Switzerland.  The scent is synthetic and made of Benzyl Salicylate, Farnesol, Geraniol etc. and it smells a bit `metallic`.

 

All in all, it was a unique experience, and worth the price of my eau de toilette – just over £60 for a 50ml. bottle.